Churches and brothels have had a major sales run in Victoria across 2025.
Victoria is in the midst of a salvation and sin selling surge with the largest run of churches and brothels changing hands since at least the turn of the decade in the past year.
And while churches might be benefiting from a bit of divine intervention as demand and prices ascend in many instances off the back of other faith groups, industry insiders are questioning if rising sales and a falling median price for the state’s brothels is a reflection of the deregulation of sex work.
It’s not just the houses of the holy and ill repute that notched a big run in 2025, with recently released Valuer General records revealing it hosted the second highest number of residential property sales on record at 175,523 — behind the state’s last major property boom in 2021, when 216,706 properties including houses, units and residential land changed hands.
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CVA Property Consultants’ Daniel Philip handled the sale of the Uniting Church’s former Armadale landmark last year, and also worked on the Uniting faith’s sale of 355-357 Whitehorse Rd home in Nunawading.
They were among 40 places of worship sold across the state, according to the Victorian Valuer General’s Guide to Property Values 2025.
Mr Philip said the sales showed the breadth of demand for churches, with investors, developers and other faith groups among those looking to resurrect them.
The agent said in the case of the Nunawading sale, substantive carparking had helped attract another faith group to buy the property. It is now the St James Coptic Orthodox Church after a $4.3m sale.
“And we had over 100 inquiries for Armadale, though that was a very unique building,” Mr Philip said.
86B Kooyong Rd, Armadale, was sold by the Uniting Church in 2025.
Inside the impressive building that has been at the high-profile location since the late 1800s.
355-357 Whitehorse Rd, Nunawading, was also sold by the Uniting Church — to another faith group that appreciated its carparking on site.
With the Valuer General’s report indicating that the median price of places of worship being sold has risen in recent years, Mr Philip said it was possible that was being led by larger plots of land being eyed by developers.
“But you do get competitive prices when another faith group is looking at it,” he added.
Ray White Commercial head of research Vanessa Rader said rising land tax burdens could be a factor for more commercial property owners looking to sell up, but that an uptick in church sales was “quite interesting”.
“Quite a lot are redeveloped into something different,” Ms Rader said.
“And a lot of the time they have really quite lovely architecture and it can turn into office or commercial space.”
In 2023, Ms Rader forecast a rise in mum and dad investors looking at “more unusual” commercial investments — responding to more affordable price points.
The Club 8 brothel in Springvale sold for $2.25m last year.
The interior is surprisingly colourful …
… and comes with some unusual additions to its bedrooms, like spa baths.
“That grew in Covid when rates were next to nothing, and with the changes from the federal budget I think smaller industrial and medical centres will be another one ahead,” she said.
“There’s demand there for them.”
The latest Valuer General report indicates that medical centres and medical surgeries have also had their busiest run in at least five years, with 175 sales in 2025.
Ray White Oakleigh’s Leigh Kelepouris handled the sale of the Club Clayton brothel in September last year, and said the deal had been the hard sell that such venues typically were due to a slightly more limited buyer pool.
Four more bordellos were sold in the past year, including the nearby Club 8 Springvale, which is well above recent norms of one to three a year, Mr Kelepouris said it was possible the rise in sales was driven by owners anticipating industry changes after deregulation of aspects of the sex industry in recent years.
A Reservoir church sold in Melbourne’s north for $2.475m.
Club Clayton brothel in Clayton South has a fairly innocuous facade.
The interior photos show what appears to be a reinforced bed with additional footings.
“I think the higher rents are very appealing for those who are just looking for a yield,” he said.
“But deregulation would have led to more people deciding to put them on the market.”
Since late 2023, there has not been a need to obtain government licensing to be a sex work provider under the Sex Work Decriminalisation Act 2022.
More broadly, he said 2025 had been a year with fairly strong confidence from investors — particularly for properties with industrial one zoning, which was often where brothels were found.
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